Washington, April 3 (AseanAll) — More than 21 million K-10 students and approximately 770,000 teachers are expected to benefit from a new Philippine government project aimed at improving learning outcomes in primary and lower secondary education nationwide.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved US$600 million for the Project for Learning Upgrade Support and Decentralization (PLUS-D) to help the Philippines improve foundational literacy, numeracy and mathematics outcomes for students in public primary and lower secondary schools nationwide, implemented through the Department of Education (DepEd).
"For the Philippines, sustaining growth and creating more jobs will depend on strong human capital — a workforce with solid foundational skills in literacy and numeracy," said Zafer Mustafaoğlu, World Bank Division Director for the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei. "This effort is about giving every Filipino child a fair start, ensuring they can build the skills that underpin lifelong learning and future success in the labor market."
The Philippines has made significant progress in expanding access to basic education, particularly at the primary and lower secondary levels. Despite these achievements, the country faces a severe learning crisis in basic education, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies show that 91 percent of 10-year-olds cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text—a phenomenon known as “learning poverty.”
Low learning outcomes are closely linked to inadequate teaching and learning conditions, including limited teacher capacity, suboptimal school leadership, insufficient infrastructure, and subpar quantity and quality of learning materials.
To help address these challenges, PLUS-D aims to deliver nationwide support to help K-10 learners catch up and excel, focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy improvement. It will support DepEd’s learning acceleration and recovery program, while improving how learning is measured and used in classrooms through enhanced assessments.
To ensure these improvements reach every classroom, it will also strengthen teaching and leadership through evidence-based training and coaching; expand access to inclusive teaching–learning materials (including accessible resources for learners with disabilities and support for Indigenous Peoples learners); and advance DepEd’s digitalization and decentralization programs.
It will finance grants and tailored support for 10 selected DepEd regional offices and over 11,100 schools to accelerate elementary learning and improve the quality of lower secondary education under decentralized arrangements, in line with DepEd’s 5-Point Reform agenda.
"PLUS-D is about combating learning poverty nationwide by equipping teachers with evidence-based support, promoting school autonomy and accountability, and helping Filipino learners become independent, confident readers. We have seen this work in countries around the world, and the Philippines will be no exception. Help is on the way," said Janssen Edelweiss Teixeira, World Bank Senior Education Specialist and Project Leader.
PLUS-D will benefit 21 million learners enrolled in kindergarten to Grade 10 and in programs of the Alternative Learning System (ALS), along with their 777,000 teachers. The project will also support about 59,000 school leaders and 300 DepEd staff through capacity-building activities. (ALS refers to the Philippines’ nonformal system that provides second-chance education to out-of-school youth and adults who could not complete basic education.)
